After all
by chillysensation
Summary: The mankind finally defeated the titans and the whole Scouting legion celebrates in sweet victorious alcoholic intoxication. Mikasa with friends celebrates as well. The loss of her sound judgement in the later hours due to drinking too much alcohol leads to some unexpected experiances for her.
1. Chapter 1

_**Notes: **_This story was just an attemp to write something M-rated. I've never done so and I just wanted to try it to see if I was able to do so. At first I didn't want to published it, but… my friend persuaded me. So thank you, Miel. :) This is for you.

_**Warnings:**_ I am not native speaker, so there will be some grammatical mistakes surely. Also fans of Eren shouldn't probably read it, I don't like him, so I wrote him very drunk, dumb and annoying. And those of you, who like proper dialogues fitting to each character shouldn't read it as well, they are quite OOC. This story is more like parody than anything else.

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It was a warm spring evening. The air smelled of humidity and fresh wind and the sky was blushing in embarrassment as the sun was just about to go sleep. The most of the soldiers of Scouting legion were sitting outside by many tables with benches, which had been taken on the courtyard from various rooms of the fortress, to celebrate the happiest day of the mankind with relatively often toasts of saké. Everybody smiled from ear to ear and even those soldiers, who had unfortunately lost their friends in the last battle, grinned adorably on everyone around after several mournful shots of the rice wine and some glasses of beer. The atmosphere was great and everyone celebrated cheerfully.

Mikasa, dressed in her long skirt and a white t-shirt with long turned up sleeves, sat with her former classmates at one middle table, perfectly surrounded by the crowd. The cut wound on her cheek was glued with small plaster, which prevented the fragile scab created there from tearing. The cotton-wool bandage above her right eye was fastened by medical tape to stop the bleeding of an injury on her forehead. The left hand of hers, injured in the last fight, was firmly fixed in bandages, which continued from her fingers up to the middle of the forearm.

She was really glad, that the entire suffering finally ended and largely even thanks to her. However, she was still gloomy and buried in her own thoughts, so she didn't really notice eccentric Eren, who managed to get drunk much faster than anyone else. He had been already standing on their table and shouting on every one joyfully.

Jean, sitting beside her, arrogantly and mockingly observing Eren, had his head swathed much more than Mikasa and his broken hand was hanging in the triangular bandana tied around his neck.

"What is it now, Eren?" he pronounced loftily with a maniacal grimace, which reminded Mikasa of the time about one year ago, when they all were sitting in the training camp's dining hall.

"Cheers to all o-... of youuuu," Eren started saying, pretending to be deathly serious but in the meantime of his own speech his legs got twisted and there was a danger of him falling down.

Mikasa still kept her sharp senses as if she knew that kind of situation would happen. She caught him promptly and laid him on her place next to the Jean, who crouched his nose in disdain and looked at the girl in disappointment, how she walked around the table to sit beside Armin. Even he had bandaged forehead as Jean, his hair were partly fastened together and similar medical tape glued to the neck as his black-haired friend to her face.

The blond boy smiled at her thankfully and with kind voice he stated: "What would have we done without you."

"We would have had to drag Jaeger on the sickbay, that what we would have done," Jean retorted and took a swing of his beer.

Mikasa's left hand subconsciously clenched and a small painful sigh escaped from her mouth as she realized, that exactly in the place, where she buried her nails, is a huge cut wound, she suffered in the fight.

Eren staggered on the place while sitting in front of her but fortunately he regained the stability again. He took his face into his swathed palms, leaning against the table and grinned at Mikasa dumbly. The girl got slightly nervous under his drunken sight and couldn't prevent herself from embarrassment. However, afterwards Eren drank one more saké, which Mikasa hadn't finished earlier, because she had been just catching him, and after his alcoholic grimace he collapsed to the grass.

Jean burst into loud laughter immediately. However, Mikasa pierced him with a murderous look, with which she completely hid her pinkish cheeks, so the brown-haired boy rather stopped doing so and leaned down for Eren to help him sit again.

"I think, you've got enough, Eren," Armin said resolutely and pulled the bottle with warm rise wine away considerately, "I suggest to drink it before he manages to steal it for himself again," he whispered to the black-haired girl by his left.

"I agree," Mikasa nodded and both of them drank one small goblet of the warm spirit.

"And I have to remain on dry land as well, huh?" Jean protested across the table offended.

Mikasa gave him a cold sight again, although she grew sentimental a bit and poured him a shot as well. They were just about to clink glasses, when the leadership arrived to the biggest main table perpendicularly to the rest of the smaller ones. Erwin was just sitting in the middle seat with major Hanji Zoe by his right hand and lance corporal Rivaille by left.

Something moved inside of Mikasa, as she sighted corporal and reminded herself about their conversation just before the last battle. He talked to her straight, just for the sake of the whole operation; because she had just recently joined his special ops squad and in the past she had already yielded to her emotions, so it might have endanger the whole plan. There wasn't anything personal in it apparently. It surprised her, when they fought by each other's side, that he addressed her by her first name, though. Not that she wouldn't have been comfortable with it that time but to be honest, in that moment was her mind thinking just about not being devoured by titans. However, retrospectively, as she remembered it, the memory gave her fingers the shivers and the goose bumps on her scruff.

In the meantime, the leadership stood to their seats, and everybody got silent, except of Eren, who half-deadly lied on the bench beside Jean and sang some unidentifiable melody. All of the soldiers looked at him and it couldn't be missed, how the corners of their mouths trembled but nobody dared to laugh.

Jean rolled his eyes up and plugged up Eren's mouth with his palm. In the meantime a small giggle escaped lips of Mikasa through her bandaged hand in front of her mouth, how she couldn't resist laughing to her best friend due to slight drunkenness. As she lifted her head to face the commander, who was obviously preparing to propose a toast, she froze as she noticed a bit surprised grimace on corporal's face and it appeared to her that even the corners of his mouth trembles with self-denial of the laughter. After a short moment of looking at each other Rivaille quickly turned his head and his eyes went numb again, how he wore his typical inaccessible mask. Hanji on the other side ostentatiously suppressed her laughter in palms and didn't mind even the reproachful look on Erwin's face.

The blond leader rather continued, ignoring his comrades.

"Today! Today the suffering of the humanity ended. Today the mankind finally regained its freedom. And everything thanks to you! I thank you so much for that. Celebrate this day even for those who didn't make it with us," he stated shortly, simply and accurately and he took his goblet with sake and motion to everyone for their health.

"And especially to Mikasa!" Eren screamed croakily all of a sudden, as he waited for Jean to ease the grip of his mouth for him to be able to finally extricate.

Mikasa slightly lowered her head to hide at least a part of her face with her black locks and prevent anyone from looking at her. Erwin obviously had nothing to add, because he just gazed at Eren consternated. Rivaille in the meanwhile managed to roll his eyes up and afterwards he continued in the speech in the sake of Erwin.

"Yeah! Especially to Mikasa, the woman, who delivered the last blow to our enemies," he added dramatically and with a goblet of crystal clear liquid in the hand he beckoned as his superior did not long ago, although unlike him corporal beckoned strictly to her.

She blinked several times, trying to hide her embarrassment and as she realized, that everybody waited for her to imaginarily clink glasses with him, she uncertainly raised her cup with sake. She stood up and tried to straighten herself to not look that embarrassed and with slightly shaking hand holding the goblet of the drink she motioned to him.

This time she was absolutely sure of the feeling smile, which appeared on his face. Immediately, as they clinked their glasses, every soldier started shouting her name, laughing and celebrating. Mikasa sat down right away, trying to look invisible, falling in embarrassment down to the earth core. The drunken Eren in front of her, who was mindlessly laughing, made her absolutely furious. She rather drank out her shot and poured herself even the rest of the alcohol from the bottle by her hand to forget, what just happened.

A fleeting touch on her right arm disturbed her from her presumed humiliation, which didn't hit the other soldiers at all and nobody didn't actually mind her. Armin slightly patted her arm and encouragingly smiled at her, pouring another rise wine to her glass.

"Especially you," he sang joyfully to repeat the toast, with cheeks already a bit reddish due to alcohol.

Mikasa smiled gratefully and drank off the whole shot.

The sun already set and the lights started fading away. Not long after the chain of small lampions started radiating above their heads, giving the tables fine orange shade of light. Soon their other still living former classmates as Sasha, Ymir with Historia and Connie joined their little group. Even they had reddish cheeks and laughed out loud all the time. Ymir almost all the time fleetingly hugged Historia and it was very cute to scrutinize the new just formed couple.

It made Mikasa think about some different matters than just the constant fighting and stress, which she had been experiencing all the time for the last several days and on the inside, she simpered all the time touched by watching those two. Despite it she felt a certain sorrow all of the sudden and looked to half-dead Eren now sleeping on the bench next to her. Due to her loss of sound judgement and self-control she was no more able to keep her typical stoic mask and a little disappointment and sadness immediately approached her face.

Suddenly, she would have liked to drown her emotion in alcohol but all of the bottles on the table were already empty. She got up, just about to go for another supplies, when even Jean stood up and without restrain he asked: "May I acmo- eeh... acom-panny you?"

She blinked several times. Her tongue grew numb with alcohol that much, that she didn't know what to say so she just nodded silently. As she past Eren, she couldn't prevent herself from slightly touching his cold, soft cheek. That sensation was electrifying for her and even he energized in some certain way, how she noticed. Although she didn't except to hear, how he whispered from his sleep just one that most improbable name she awaited: "Annieee..."

Her head leaned down a bit, while she was hobbling by Jean's side to outer tables, where were big bottles of alcohol, vegetable, fruit, rice and little bit of meat, which had already almost vanished. However, Jean stumbled in the middle of the way and fell down on the table of some older soldiers, who invited him with loud scream: "Yaaaay!" and they poured him a shot immediately. Jean, quite stupefied, absolutely forgot about Mikasa and rather talked with his older comrades.

The black-haired girl was to be honest quite glad, that she got rid of him so easily. She wasn't exactly in the mood to dissimulate right now, so she went to the tables with refreshments, took one bigger bottle of sake and hobbled away to the exercise area with dummy Titans used for trainings. She sat down under a huge pine tree not too far from the celebration, opened bottle of saké and took two mighty gulps. The throat burned her with every gulp. She signed and buried her head into her bent legs, which she had been hugging.

For a while she ruminated about Eren, about Jean, about everyone she spent the evening with. A picture of Ymir kissing Historia on her cheek came to her mind. Not that she would have envied them each other, but it was really nice and painful at the same time, to see two persons so devoted to each other. It reminded her about the fact, how lonely she actually was. Just after a minute, two, she noticed that she felt something wet on her thighs. She raised her head to find out, that the teardrops soaked her skirt. Luckily the wet stains were not so easy to see.

"Hmmm...," she uttered loudly, "I'm such stupid," she complained soundly in drunkenness and sobbed.

She leaned the bottle to drink sake again. The sweetish taste flooded all of her taste buds as much that she started feeling the need of drinking some water.

"It is not very smart...," it sounded by her right hand, and she jumped a little, recognizing the voice, "to drink that much. Do you want to end up like Jaeger?"

The colour of voice frightened her and she rather wiped out the rest of her tears quickly. There was no possibility of that person, who came to her mind immediately, talking to her right now. The one, to whom she thought the voice belonged, most likely sat in the time with the rest of the leadership by the main table and talked about some important matter.

After barely half of the minute corporal Rivaille appeared in her field of vision, conscientiously neat and perfectly clean as always. A slight embarrassment swallowed her as she realized that she kept sitting alone in the dirt under the tree with bottle of rice wine and that she probably looked smeared to his eyes probably.

"Eh... I, well... corporal," the black-haired girl faltered with eyes avoiding him. Why did she act such impossible and embarrassed, she thought to herself.

"Calm down, Ackerman, this is not exactly the formal meeting," he started and stepped forward a bit with hands buried deep in his pockets with extremely annoyed grimace on his face, looking down to her from his not exactly enormous height.

"I understand and to be honest, I would hardly raise up to salute you right now," she admitted sincerely with eyes fixed on the needles by her feet, pointing out on her drunken condition.

Why did she even tell so, she ruminated just after her words escaped the mouth. In a little confusion she grasped her forehead and dangled in the sitting position a bit, realizing, that she probably drank over.

"I appreciate your sincerity but I rather take this one," he uttered almost caringly, while he observed her state and tenderly pulled out the bottle from her languid hand, "by the way, call me Rivaille."

In that moment Mikasa finally lifted her head to sight him. An inaccessible look occupied his face as always, but she swore that she saw that sign of smile as several hours ago.

"And is it appropriate? Corp-... I mean, Rivaille," she murmured more silently than before, wondering, that she was even able to pronounced well.

"At given circumstances it definitely is, Mikasa," he repaid the addressing and a small spark gleamed in his eyes. He pronounced it softly and somehow more nicely, than he used to.

A small grin found its way on her face. Immediately she lowered her eyes due to embarrassment and to prevent her superior to see it.

"Come on, give me your hand," he said after a while and the black-haired woman got to see his soft hand with long slim fingers leaning to her.

When a questioning look approached her face, Rivaille added quickly: "Lets walk a bit. It would be better for you to throw up to some bush rather on yourself."

His eyebrows lifted, as Mikasa still didn't accept his hand. After a minute of numbness she finally caught him and let him pull her up. Due to her lack of coordination she almost overfelt on the corporal.

"Eh, I am so sorry, Rivaille," she said giggling, when she regained stability again.

He looked a bit consternated. It was quite unordinary to see this drunk, unaffected and cutely smiling Mikasa, when he reminded her always stoic even-tempered look she wore all the time. Maybe it was because of an alcohol he drank a bit with other soldiers, but he somehow couldn't force out the memory of how their bodies fleetingly touched from his mind. He rather shook his head to chase it away.

Still holding his hand while walking, Mikasa blinked several times, observing him inquisitively and after a while she blurted out, "you're not drunk at all!"

The hair of her flew in the night wind around as well as her bloody red scarf, which she wore at the moment.

"Yes, I am, but obviously I withstand it better than you and especially than the annoying friend of yours," he noted with numb look on his face and for appearance's sake he drank a bit from the bottle he took away from her a while ago.

How they continued walking slowly, Mikasa sometimes stumbled, so without his firm grasp of her hand, she would have probably been lying in unconsciousness on the ground somewhere.

"Why d-... don't you like Eren that much?" she rolled up from herself with problems with eyes asymmetrically lidded.

For a moment they stopped walking by coincidence just by the cut down, trimmed tree, on which members of Legion used to sit after the trainings. Rivaille scrutinized her with serious eyes for a while.

"I know, what you need, "he uttered rather for himself, "a lots of water. Just stay here, okay? Don't walk anywhere, especially not to the rivulet near, understand?" he said simply, grasped her shoulders and set her on the tree trunk, "don't go anywhere," he ordered her in repetition, walking dynamically back to the celebration.

He might have been away for ten minutes, half an hour. To Mikasa it seemed as a whole eternity. She was extremely bored. As he returned with a bottle of water, the black-haired woman was lying on the trunk, observing the stars above her. The night lights were reflecting in her dark eyes, which she focused up to them so she even didn't notice the corporal until he leaned above her head.

"Yaay, Rivaille, when did you come back?" she asked cheerfully and kept laying.

"Come on," he said, put down the bottle and with both hand lifted Mikasa to the sitting position, "Here you are!" he handed her the water and sat beside her, "drink," a simple order came from his mouth.

After another quarter-hour, when the female soldier obediently drank the water, they remained silent. She focused on the drinking and on to not fall over the trunk backwards. He kept observing the stars and seemingly didn't pay attention to her. In the hide of his mind he mused, why was he even doing this. Obviously even he lost certain judgement due to alcohol, when he kept strolling here with young member of Scouting legion, possibly to see by anyone. Maybe he just got bored, that was all. The humanity's strongest with the woman worth hundred soldiers. What an irony!

His thoughts were interrupted by a sight he felt on his cheek. In the corner of his eye he saw, how Mikasa scrutinized him, holding already empty bottle. She seemed to be more conscious, no wobbling in her sitting position, her face wasn't making that cheerful drunk grimace like before. The typical case of how clear water can relieve to everyone of drunkenness or terrible hangover.

The moment their eyes met again, he found a slight sign of scare and a certain form of fear reflecting in them. Mikasa turned her head away and started gazing at the neck of the bottle in her hands.

"I just don't like Jaeger, that's all, I have my own reasons for that," he uttered from nowhere, still watching how her eyes oscillated on the bottle, ground, the invisible point in the space somewhere in front of her and back, "is that the thing, you wanted to know back then?"

"Understood, corporal," she noted formally how she slowly started realizing, how dumbly she had acted and she were drowning in the chasm of embarrassment. However, she really wondered, why her superior still sat here with her.

"I've already told you, it's Rivaille," he repeated softly but also a bit annoyed. His eyes turned away from her.

"I should probably head back right now," she said, observing the ground under her feet.

She stood up with slight lurch, how her head got dizzy from swift getting up. Rivaille caught her automatically with both his hands by hers and in that movement grasped even her injured arm disproportionally strongly. She led out a painful moan and immediately snatched her hand out of his grip.

"I'm sorry," he murmured promptly as he saw, how the girl held her bandaged leftie carefully and tried to overcome the pain.

"No... no, that's okay," she almost whispered and looked straight into his eyes. For a moment she stared at him silently and then started walking away, passing by him.

"Mikasa!" he turned to her quickly once more.

Although she had been already couple metres far from him, she looked back immediately as she got to hear her name.

"Good job with Reiner back then. The mankind could be proud of you," he added quickly.

She smiled at him heartily and slightly nodded in affirmation and then turned back to return to the others, leaving corporal all alone at the exercise area. Her head was a mess. She might have been still pretty drunk, she didn't know, but corporal Rivaille somehow appeared to be really nice to her. For most of the time he was reserved in talking to her as well as to every other soldier and except the calling her by first name with certain nonchalance he usually expressed himself sharply, sometimes vulgarly, eternally with bored annoyed face and sceptically lidded eyes. Especially while talking with Eren.

She shook her head to chase her thought away. Her sight was still bit unclear, on the edges blurry and sometime she stumbled over the rocks in the grass. She hadn't sobered up as much as she hoped. However, that didn't matter now, she thought. How much time it could be?

The rest of the sun radiance had already completely vanished and except of the lights above the heads of celebrating ones there was an opaque, hostile darkness everywhere, in which yet the singing and joyful drunken shouts floated, how she was slowly approaching the celebration.

She had to be away for quite a long time, because there had been already only a half of soldiers. Who knew where the rest found itself. It came to her mind that maybe many of people sneaked off similarly to her some time ago. The remaining soldiers, between whose was Eren loud and lively again of course with her friends, were sitting by some joined tables.

She came to the table quickly and sat down on the one of last free seats, by a coincidence just beside major Hanji. Fortunately there was Armin sitting nearby, whose eyes were slightly reddish together with his button-like red nose.

"Oh, Mikasa, where have you been for so long? I was just about to go look for you," he affirmed loudly to draw attention to her incoming and motioned her with his glass of beer.

She thanked to the faith inwardly, that he didn't do so. She didn't know, how she would have possibly explained herself alone in corporal's presence. Although she realized, that Rivaille would have probably found something to use as an excuse.

"I might have fallen asleep under the tree," she lied with an artificial grin.

"That would explain, why you have been away for so long, yeah," the blond boy waved above it.

"I wouldn't claim that so convinced," Hanji averred, sitting beside Mikasa and effectively moving her glasses on her nose closer to the eyes.

Mikasa's viscera clenched as she realized, that the leadership probably noticed Rivaille's absence. Despite her concerns she was trying to look naturally and to find some kind of solution, how this circumstance gloss over. Fortunately boisterous Eren saved her, when he ran to her back and poked under her ribs. Scared she led out a squeal and all the soldiers around including Eren broke out to loud laughter.

Even she with visible relief laughed and came across the company around with her eyes. She stopped at Hanji, who kept watching her with her mischievous creepy smile. Mikasa raised her eyebrows and she rather drank a goblet full of saké, someone dropped in front of her. However, this time she must be really careful about drinking.

The entertainment kept going in full speed. First of all the typically drunken games was playing, like Dice or Truth or dare. Unfortunately Eren kept loosing, so he got drunk much more than before. He even fainted. Although the black-haired girl laughed, she already raised up automatically to help him back on his feet. Armin stood up as well but he lurched several times and then he fell next to Eren. His ringing laughter followed the bang of his fall. Still shaking in laughter he got up again and helped Mikasa with their drunken unconscious friend.

"Let's drag him to the bed," she announced loudly enough to let know everyone around and she threw one of Eren's arms over her neck to prop him up.

Armin did so as well and together they started to slowly pulling him to the fortress. Unfortunately, Eren's room was on the very last floor, so they had to scrape with him up to the third storey. He slipped off from their intoxicated hands several timed and slid down to the previous floor. Both awake friends always watched how Eren was going down on his abdomen, with spasmodic grimace and sighted at each other with concerns while they were dragging him on the same path again. Couple minutes after they finally managed to get him into his room, from where Mikasa left on the corridor to leave Armin taking off the dirty clothes of Eren.

Due to the blond-haired friend's drunkenness it took him unreasonably long to accomplish the task. The girl stood outside the room with newly regained relative sober condition, leaning on the wall next to the room to Eren's room. She was ruminating with head slightly lifted, the eyes fixed forward and the arms laid crossed on her chest.

She didn't even notice, that there was somebody walking in through the corridor. Only when corporal Rivaille passed by her, gave her one surprised sight and left, she realized how weird it probably looked that she kept leaning on the wall of corridor in the third, strictly male floor, all alone, in front of the door of Eren Jaeger in addition. She didn't have much time to meditate about it, because hardly after corporal vanished behind the corner of the stairs in middlefloor, the door of Eren's room fiercely opened and Armin peeked out in the doorframe.

"Ooooh, you didn't have to wait," he said generously with his half-singing voice and he smiled broadly, when he went out into the corridor.

She shrugged her shoulders neutrally, feeling soft blush, which spread across her cheeks suddenly. Armin obviously hadn't noticed it and he walked pass her to get back to the others. She followed him silently, trying to suppress her embarrassment, which were ostentatiously melting under her dark eyes.

As the friends returned to the tables, almost every seats were taken how people kept changed their seats here and there. The place beside Hanji, where Mikasa had been sitting before, was now occupied by nobody else than Rivaille. She clenched her healthy uninjured hand a bit and looked around for some other seat. The only one left was the Armin's former one and because her friend was sitting on the completely other side with Jean and Connie, there was no other option for Mikasa than to sit on that free spot exactly against her short superior.

As she sat down, she noticed Hanji whispering to Rivaille's ear something silently while fleetingly watching her. Rivaille looked like the titan jsut ripped his limb off, with eyes wide, reflecting noticeable shock. He stared into space on the table and when major leaned off from him, he took a sip of rise one from his glass hastily and swallowed it massively.

"Ehm, ehm," Hanji raised her voice subsequently and stood up. Efficiently she clacked on the glass of beer with a spoon which she then put off, "Pay me attention for a moment, please."

Everybody got silent, looking at the major, who had just raised her shot with pellucid liquid, which looked like vodka. Even Mikasa lifted her chin up to the brown-haired woman with spectacles and watched her with interest, and in the same moment she noticed in the corner of the eye, that Rivaille fixed his eyesight on her.

"Because even our latecomers arrived," she affirmed ceremonially and motioned to Mikasa and Armin, "I may propose my own toast finally, because those toasts by our commander and the corporal here sucked."

"I strongly protest," Rivaille stated beside her with closed eyes and hands crossed on his chest, "I am really curious about what bullshit you'll come up with."

A slight laughter sounded from the others.

"Oh hush...," Hanji threw at him, when almost everyone quietened down again and turned her head back to the rest, "because the midnight is approaching us and most of you had already gone to bed or would soon do so, I want to our toast to be a little more interesting, so... everyone should have a toast to one person, who is the closest to him. So cheers! Long may the morning hangover live!" she said simply, beckoned with glass to somebody invisible, she made up, in front of her and drank off the whole shot of vodka that she even shook a bit due to it.

Then everybody started making noise and across the table Jean's voice carried to Mikasa, who screams: "To you, Marco!" and a couple of sobs could be heard and then the following sound of swallowing. People around him patted his back, when the tearful and silent Jean pour himself another brimful glass of sake. Even some other people shoot the names of their deceased friends and loves and most of them started grieving for them immediately. Really good idea, Hanji, Mikasa told to herself sceptically, watching people around her.

She kept turning the glass with rice wine in her palm and ruminated to who she was going to drink it. So many people, she lost in the fight against titans, appeared in her head at once, that she didn't know who to pick actually. Eren came to her mind but right in that moment she hadn't felt like drink a shot exactly to him.

She still hadn't clink the glass with that imaginary person, when she lifted her eyes up and looked across the table to Rivaille, who kept observing the glass like she did. It seemed his inaccessibility had faded away for a moment and even in his eyes as well as in the eyes of many others reflected unbelievable sadness. He raised the glass to his thin lips and drank it off, while he was piercing the table in front of him with the eyes. He put off the goblet on the table fiercely and caught his forehead into his palms. Then his fingers ran through his raven black hair and his lidded eyes sighted silently at Mikasa, who still kept holding full glass of sake in her not injured hand.

His toast and sorrowful look reminded her of how he rescued her from Annie. It happened just a couple minutes after he found out, that his entire squad was brutally murdered and she was sure, that to them he apparently clinked.

She sadly looked down on her glass again and raised it up to her mouth and she barely noticeably motioned to her superior, who was just watching her with glassy eyes and drank it off as well. However, Rivaille immediately changed his sorrow for his dead comrades to sign of surprise and with lips tightly clamped he lifted his eyebrows.

Mikasa felt, how under his scrutiny her cheeks started burning so she quickly looked away, got up and walked to her friends, where she crouched down to hide from Rivaille. His sight made her nervous.

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To be continued...


	2. Chapter 2

Jean just wiped his eyes and calmed down a bit, when he noticed her presence.

"Wow, Mikasa, don't you wanna sit down?" he offered and moved over to the very edge of the bench for the girl to have enough space.

"Thank you," the black-haired girl said with smile to him and removed the rest of a tear of his left cheek.

The boy froze under her sensation and reddened immediately. Mikasa caught herself enjoying his crush on her quite a lot. It treated her soul like a healing balm and even if it was just one-sided affection, she was really flattered.

Turning her face to the others across the table, she leaned for a carafe of sake and poured herself a shot. She barely dipped her lips in the alcoholic beverage, when Sasha on the other side of the table shoot: "Now, when Mikasa is finally here and she obviously can't wriggle out of it, because she had nowhere else to go, or... I hope she doesn't! Haha" the girl started cheerfully and looked at everyone with conspiratorial face.

Mikasa exhaled surprised and rather finished the shot, feeling, how her senses started slowly dulling again.

"You say, you wanna drag exactly this up on her, right?" Connie sitting beside her retorted mockingly and grasped her around her shoulders.

"Definitely!" she breathed out and laughed devilishly, "so Mikasa – truth or a shot?!"

"Is that some kind of new game?" black-haired girl wondered, when everyone glanced at her eagerly.

"Oh yeah, I made up the rules myself," Sasha stated proudly.

"It is quite fun," Jean said by Mikasa's right hand, who just apparently finally woke up from the embarrassment.

"Okey, whatever," she surrendered with smile, ready for every single badness, "for fun, I'm choosing the truth!"

Sasha laughed maniacally and in that moment Mikasa realized, that she should have probably rather chosen drinking the alcohol instead.

"Sooo... tell us... eemmm," Sasha beat about the bush but the raven-haired girl was sure, that the coveted question laid in her stomach for very long time, "do you love Eren?"

"Eh...," Mikasa paused in surprise, feeling the chilly sweat, which just appeared on the temples of her skull, "I do like him, but like a brother, he's the only thing, that remained from my family and the old life I had," she stuttered out hastily.

Jean beside her came more alive at once and she noticed, that he smoothed his ruffled brown hair with a palm a little.

"Wow, look at that, how Jean livened up all of a sudden. So I order you to ask him," Sasha laughed, while she commanded Mikasa to do so, pointing at the boy with her index finger.

"I hate you, Sasha," Jean strained through his teeth and looked at her sceptically. The first thing that came to her mind, as Mikasa got to see the sight of his, was undoubtedly the grimace she used to see at corporal's face so often.

Why did she keep thinking about him, she asked herself inwardly and she would have liked to slap her face for that kind of current emotional weakness. Jean and Sasha threw the bonbon wrappings lying scrunched up on the table at each other in the meantime. Armin next to the Connie just observed their paper war, still silent and hypnotized by them.

"Well then... how it is? Truth of the shot?" Mikasa said and she asked rather Sasha than Jean next to her.

"Yeah, yeah, you're saying it well," the girl affirmed.

"I take the shot," Jean announced promptly and drank sake.

"Aaaaw, you coward!" Sasha spoke to him sharply with laughter, "as a punishment you have to ask there just incoming corporal," she pointed on Rivaille, who had just sat down at the adjacent table. As he overheard his rank, he turned his head to them at once.

"Oh corporal, please come in here," Sasha begged him with wide grin on her face.

The man raised up, leaving his comrades behind and he came to their table, facing Sasha.

"What do you want?" he asked bluntly and frowned at all of them.

"You know, we are playing Truth or the shot, wanna join in?" Connie explained simply.

Their superior remained silent for a while, apparently ruminating, if it was wise decision, but then he shrug his shoulders and with annoyed grimace on the face he sat down beside Sasha. As he crossed his legs under the table, Mikasa was accidentally kicked by him. She jumped up in surprise, wondering, whose leg it was.

"Sasha ordered me to ask you, so... ehm... Truth or the shot?" Jean pronounced with certain respect, but the corners of his mouth trembled noticeably.

"What kind of man you are, if you let a hysterical woman like that to command you. No offence," corporal retorted with scorn and ran his fingers through his hair.

"Pff," it sounded from Sasha's mouth.

"The truth," Rivaille added and took a long hard look at Jean, who tentatively looked around himself, not knowing what to ask.

After a while of pure silent, when Jean remained silent, trying so hard to come up with some clever question, the most of people sitting by the table were staring into space annoyed and waiting for him. The corporal lidded his eyes a bit more, kept watching Jean in front of him.

"I got bored. So you ask him, Mikasa," Sasha resigned and her head feel on the wooden desk in boredom.

Mikasa wide opened her eyes in surprise.

"I hope, you're gonna ask me something good, because I really consider the possibility of getting up. It is dead here," Rivaille affirmed sceptically, as he turned to her.

"Eh... Well then, don't take offence please, corporal," the black-haired girl started and unintentionally ran with her eyes from his penetrating sight to his slightly open lips, "but... with who did you clink your shot, when major Hanji called us on to do so?"

Everybody quietened and watched Rivaille, who evaluated the question. He didn't take eyes off Mikasa, as if to find out, why did she ask him exactly for it.

"With one deceased member of my squad," he pronounced silently after a while, "and what now?" he added with slightly louder voice and his eyes ran across everyone.

"Well, now you have to ask someone yourself. So, ask for example Armin," she suggested and looked at the bottom of the glass, that was standing in front of her to run off the thoughts which flooded her head momentarily. So he drank to honour only one of the deceased comrades from his squad, she thought and immediately a smiley face of fragile, small, ginger woman, whose disfigured corpse she saw as she had been chasing Annie in the forest, came to her mind.

In the meantime Armin managed to answer the question whether he said the truth or rather drank the shot. He chose the glass of sake.

"You guys are absolutely terrible," Sasha noted annoyed.

"Still better, than answering every shit, you girls ask them," Rivaille retorted naturally and drank from a carafe of sake, not even bothering himself to pour the beverage to the glass.

"You are so mean, corporal," Sasha stated averred offended and crouched her nose.

"Well, if it's the case, I don't have to keep sitting with you here, madam!" he responded ironically and lifted up.

Mikasa watched his back in the tight shirt, as he walked off to the table, where he originally wanted to sit down. As he came to his comrades, he turned his head back to her of a fleeting moment and looked at het neutrally.

The evening slowly changed into the night and the mass of drinking soldiers started getting thinner. Eventually, even Sasha got up with an escuse, that she would drag half-sleeping Connie to his room. However, Mikasa didn't get drunk that much as the others to not notice, that Connie just pretended to be sleepy and that they probably just wanted to gain some more time for themselves before drunk Jean approached his room.

The mentioned boy had been just playing blackjack with Armin and due to their drunkenness, the cards just kept falling down to the ground and the game had no effect. They just have at least some excuse for keeping pouring themselves vodka, which somehow appeared on the table from nowhere. Because of the game Jean sat closer to Armin so Mikasa sat on the other side of the table alone.

She didn't need to get up and intrude to older soldiers. She finished the glass of water to prevent her head from aching as Rivaille recommended to her earlier that evening. She stood up, preparing to leave to her bedroom. She said goodbye to her friends and walked pass the two tables with older comrades used to drinking until the early morning hours.

She started feeling the sensation in her back, anticipating that somebody observed her. However, the feeling completely vanished, when Eren emerged from the gate of fortress. He wore only white cotton t-shirt with long sleeves and relatively short boxers. He was widely smiling and he continued proudly walking. Wonder he didn't fall down in every step, how he staggered.

"Oh no," Mikasa let out a sigh and turned head back to Armin in hope, that he caught her sight.

The blond-haired boy was unfortunately pretty busy with the drinking card game with Jean and didn't pay her attention. In that moment Rivaille had already noticed her desperate aura searching for help and came to her.

"You look, like you need a hand," he noted and observed her neutrally.

She remained silent and mused about some proper argument how to refuse corporal's help and how to not look like a damsel in distress in the eyes of other soldiers, even though the distress was her drunken friend.

The mentioned friend had just stumbled over a rock, to which everybody usually avoided, and smashed flat on the ground. The dull crack sounded, followed by remarkably sleepy laughter. Mikasa turned her head from her superior and screamed: "Eren!"

Terrified she ran to him. Eren tried to explain her something, but only the unintelligible mumbling really left his mouth. She blinked at him several times and not understanding a single word she sat him slowly and carefully down. She turned herself to the tables and threw his left hand across her shoulder similarly to how she did so several hours ago as she dragged him with Armin to his room.

Rivaille took his time and with slow footsteps he crept up to Eren, leaned to him and watched his drunken face from short proximity.

"You really are terrible, Jaeger," he averred simply, straightened up again and caught boy's right arm and lifted him up together with Mikasa to take him back to the fortress. Because corporal was for about ten centimetres shorter than Mikasa, Eren's weight fell especially on her. Mikasa was trying to lower herself down a bit because of him, but she wasn't sober enough to drag the burden in the form of the member of her adoptive family like that for too long.

Immediately, as they came into the fortress and went through the entry to hall of residence, Eren started babbling again. Mikasa got to hear the Rivaille's sigh.

"Why didn't you stay in your room?" she asked of her friend.

"I di.. -didnnnn't want to!" he retorted with mumbling voice and drunkenly he turned his head to her with emerald-like green eyes bleary with numbness.

"You should better shut up, you shitty brat," Rivaille snapped on him and tossed with him to throw Eren's arm across his neck more comfortably.

"But Heichoouuu," Eren turned to his superior by his right.

Another sigh and eyes rolled up to heaven.

"W-... weh-e," Eren sounded again, this time with head bended backwards with chin up, watching the ceiling.

Mikasa looked at him ruminating about what he was probably trying to say. Her back started aching slightly.

"Where... Armin?" the dark-haired boy repeated in plain language and his head dropped down in that moment, so he seemed that he lost consciousness again.

"He seemed to be asleep," Mikasa remarked and looked straight ahead again.

They just managed to get through the long corridor to the stairs and nothing else than to get with drunken Eren to the third floor remained in their way. Her friend seemed to be much heavier to Mikasa, than as she pulled him up with Armin couple hours ago. It was probably caused by her tiredness or that she had managed to refill the alcoholic supplies in the blood.

Anyway, she hugged Eren in a sort of way across the waist to his nape, where he caught him and dragged him forward. The similar idea independently on her came also to Rivaille's mind and he accidentally caught her hand in the process. He tugged himself in fright and in that moment Eren's arm almost fell of his back. The body of unconscious soldier slid couple steps down spasmodically held by Mikasa, who wasn't put out of countenance by their sudden touch as much as corporal.

"Sorry," he uttered and threw Eren's right bandaged arm over his neck again, with his left hand hugging the boy's waist instead of neck this time.

Mikasa felt the articulations of his fingers, which kept constantly hitting her right hip fleetingly in every step they made. She bit her lip, as she realized, what electrifying sensation those fleeting touches had been causing to her. The hair in her scruff stood up, not talking about her fright, back then, when he grasped her fingers inadvertently in the moment, their hands met on Eren's nape.

The rest of the way up the third floor passed off without any slightest problem. Although both soldiers were quite out of breath, they didn't lurch anyhow, as they entered the corridor of third floor. Fortunately, Eren's room was situated right next to the stairs, where Rivaille put him down into a sitting position leaning against the wall behind the boy. The black-haired man straightened up afterwards, smoothed his cream cravat and shirt out and ran his hands through the dishevelled hair, while he was observing Mikasa slowly opening Eren's door. She caught Eren at his armpits while Rivaille held his ankles under boy's dirty feet. With self-denial, mere crouched nose with disgust and frowned eyes he helped her with sleeping soldier inside.

Collaboratively they threw Eren to his bed again and just after that Rivaille turned on his heel and came out to the slightly lightened up corridor, leaving Mikasa with Eren in the dark room behind. There was the rectangle of light falling from the corridor through the opened door on Mikasa, who was standing by Eren's bed just blanketing him with sheet.

Her superior was just standing bored in front of the door and scrutinizing her with arms crossed on his chest. Nervous under his scrutiny, as she was leaving the room, she even didn't notice the higher threshold, which she had passed over without any problem the last time she was in Eren's room, and she brushed with the top of her slim foot against it. She would have probably fall down flat on the carpet in the corridor due to her inattention, if there wasn't Rivaille standing right in the trajectory of her fall and didn't caught her by her shoulders right in the moment she fell on him.

With head buried in his chest Mikasa felt, how her whole face including ears started blushing in embarrassment. She stood up on her feet again and slowly raised her head, gazing at her saviour from barely five centimetres long distance.

He still held her shoulders, even though she had been standing on her legs steadily already. Up now she realized, that in the process of falling at him she grasped even his shirt, which fabric she was still spasmodically gripping in her injured left hand. She bit her lip and with her sight fixed on the shirt she loosened the hand. She noticed, how the textile remained crumpled after her grasp and tentatively she tried to make it smooth at least a little.

"Eh... I... well, ehm," she started stuttering, unable of intelligent words, while she was helplessly smoothing his shirt.

Rivaille silently grasped her wrist and slowly pushed her to the wall next to the Eren's door, which was left open, thereby he completely silenced her. He pressed her bandaged arm to the wooden facing of the wall beside the head, perfectly imprisoned in his soft but firm grip.

Her breath fastened up and she was no longer able to suppress the blush on her cheeks. With slightly scared grimace she watched the shoes of hers. Then her eyes ran back to his crumpled shirt and at last also to his lidded eyes, which were scrutinizing her lips she kept biting in embarrassment.

He leaned to her closer and kissed her ravenously. She gave out a shriek, as she got to feel his warm lips on hers and in the first fright she clenched her palms in fists. However, almost immediately she loosened them and delightfully closed her eyes, enjoying the kiss he was giving her. For a little while he opened his eyes to lean out as if he was offering her the last opportunity to escape and as he did so for two centimetres, Mikasa promptly returned him the kiss impatiently with lidded eyes while she buried the fingers of her free hand with slight sigh, which escaped her mouth, into his raven black hair.

A moan found its way out from the deep of her soul, as she sensed his cold fingers on her skin and approached him a little closer, leaving the wall, which she was leaned against, behind completely, while she caught his cheek with her injured palm.

She felt, how he dragged her from Eren's door to the other side of the corridor but even for a slightest moment he didn't tear himself away from her. Her heart was beating loudly and the skin was pulsating under his touches. The muscles were contracting in the places, where he held her. She got to feel burning desire inside her and couldn't get enough of him. She was almost sorry, when he rested her against something hard and dropped her with one hand, which was pensively searching something in his pocket. It appeared that he had been searching for the keys, which he inserted into the lock right beside right hip of Mikasa. Immediately, as he unlocked the door, he opened them and rapidly pushed her inside the space somewhere between the doorway and pedantically made up bed. He came in after her and dynamically slammed the door with the leg, so there was no other light in the room than the silver moonlight coming there through the window. In that very moment he put the key in the lock and turned it around once, without even turning his back to her and quickly approached her to meet in the dark.

He immediately searched for her lips like some beast for its prey and passionately kissed her. He caught her around the waist and in that moment he slid on her back with palms under her t-shirt and started slowly pulling it up. His mouth tore from her lips for a while, turning to her neck. This time there was nothing, what would prevent her from thin groans, which scrambled through her throat. With eyes half-closed in delight and head lifted upwards to the ceiling she enjoyed the sensation of his lips on her neck and aroused she kept sinking her fingers in the flood of hair on the back of his head.

The t-shirt was rolled up by him up to the fastening of her bra and in the moment he reached it, he leaned back from her to pull the piece of clothes over her head. Automatically she lowered herself, elegantly lifting her arms to let him undress her.

Rivaille took off the t-shirt swiftly and threw it aside on the floor. Now it was her turn. At first she started undoing the buttons of his shirt unskilfully, with the eyes focused on the muscular chest, which had been showing underneath. Eventually she unfastened it completely and eagerly pulled it off his back, throwing it in the similar direction as he did with her t-shirt. She placed her palms of his bare chest and ran up to his neck, stopping by the worked out shoulders and prominent clavicles.

As her eyes lifted from the body to his orbs reflecting the noticeable desire as he kept observing her clumsy actions, he smiled. She looked at him apologetically and repaid his smile, realizing, that he in the meantime found the hem of her skirt, spread the waist of it and let it fall down to the ground across her arched hips. She raised her legs and dragged them out of the shoes.

They hugged again as if they couldn't get enough of each other, while Mikasa had lost certain restraints already and in the process of kissing Rivaille's neck, she undid the black belt and started unbuttoning the fly front of his white uniform trousers. This time his yearning moans even couldn't miss her hearing, while she took off his trousers blindly and slightly bit his neck. His fingers stroked her across the back to her lumbar region, where he ran with one hand under her underpants. For a moment she stopped kissing him and with eyes still closed she lifted her head up and bit her lower lip to prevent herself from groan. His trousers slid down to the floor in the meanwhile.

To quench her desire she kissed him on his lips and closed her eyes. Her hands gripped his muscular back again on his shoulder blades and dug her nails in them slightly. On her calf she felt, that they finally approached the bed and just in that moment his fingers found their way up to the fastening of her bra again. With one skilful move without watching he undid it and slowly took it off her. She felt, how her cheeks were burning in blush, how he scrutinized her nudity. She shivered with cold, because the room was quite chilly.

"Are you scared?" he whispered to her ear in presumption that she shook in fear, while he was slowly laying her on the bed and subsequently started kissing her neck again.

"Yes...," Mikasa blurted out all of a sudden, observing the wooden boards on the ceiling, "I mean, no," she added like she couldn't make her mind but his kisses started to calm her down, "actually a bit," she admitted at last, holding him on the scapulas, noticing the moves of the bones under muscular tissue, while he laid on her, leaning on his worked out arms beside her head.

She turned her head to him and kissed his lips, while he put his right leg between hers and Mikasa got to feel something pressing onto her hip. As she realized, what it would have possibly been, again she reddened like a strawberry, nevertheless not stopping kissing him, ruffling his ebony-like black hair.

He stopped kissing her lips and continued across her chin with slight, fleeting kissed to her neck, from which he moved down between her breasts to the navel with hands stroking her slim hips. In the meantime she buried her scruff into the pillow underneath, hands negligently thrown beside the head and eyes lidded in delight. Her mouth remained half-opened, as she breathed hastily, overcoming the arousal, which he awakened in her.

He kneeled down and lifted her right leg, which he placed on his right shoulder and quickly ran the fingers over its outer side to the foot from which he took of the sock and threw it behind, fixing his dark eyes on the girl desirously lying in front of him. After he put down her right leg he immediately took the left one to do the same thing with it. After he threw away even the other sock, he started to kiss her calf, while his left hand was running in the same speed and titillating down on the outer side of the leg. As his mouth slid to the knee, a small gasping escaped from girl's throat. She sensed how she got wet.

However, Rivaille didn't stopped at her knee and continued slowly down to her groin, which he kissed for a little longer than the other parts of her leg. His hand, which in the meantime had run over the outer side of the thigh down, grasped the hem of her panties and together with the other hand he swiftly took off the last piece of her clothes.

She felt shyness and with cheeks red as tomato she instinctively pressed her thighs to each other, hiding her eyes with bars from her fingers, through which she saw how Rivaille leaned above and from immediate proximity he looked at her.

"Don't be scared of me," he whispered sensually and kissed her briefly, before pulling himself away from her and unfolding her legs.

Frightened she closed her eyes hidden in her palms, scared of what would have come. Immediately afterwards she rapidly opened them and longingly gasped into the emptiness of the stifling sensuous night, as he started kissing her _there _and touching her with the tongue. Her body bowed in flood of passion and several moans escaped her mouth. She felt like in paradise, absolutely ignoring the surroundings, with eyes lidded she was gripping the sheet of bed underneath and biting her lip with desire, enjoying his every sensation.

She cracked the joints of her fingers and aroused she ran the hands through her hair, while groaning so loudly, that she started concerning, what if anybody heard her. Suddenly, that entire thrill overflew some invisible goblet and her spine curved that she buried her head deeper in the pillow and couldn't suppress the loud scream of passion, which escaped from the depth of her throat.

"Aaaah, Rivaille!" she cried out absolutely delirious and noticed how he sighted her from behind her womb.

He rose up and came closer to her, while she sat down completely breathless and came to meet him and kiss him. After that she hugged him and she managed to notice in the corner of her eye his smile, which was spreading across his face. He laid her on the bed again, but this time he didn't lean away. He kissed her passionately while penetrating her. A painful moan ran away from her and her forehead covered in sweat. She wide opened her eyes and looked at him with suffering grimace nevertheless she smiled with the thought of the pain in her lower abdomen soon subsiding.

She dug her nails into his back as much as she heard his painful gasp. She eased her grasp and with one hand he tenderly caught his nape and observed him. His eyes were dark as the night which surrounded them, shining with the flame of burning passion. Mikasa just now noticed the fractionally growing dark hair on his cheeks and chin. She let her index finger ran across his cheek and watched, how his breathless concentration changed into a smile and his hard features relaxed under hew touch. Her palms slid over his back down to his hips where she greedily grasped his bottom. As she felt how his muscles tightened in the movements, a slightly perverted smirk spread on her face. He noticed her sight and explained it to himself as an entreaty and accelerated. She laid her head on the side of pillow and moaned under his pressure with delightful smile on the face, how she started liking it.

After a while his hand slid from her breast across the hip to her bended leg, which he caught and put it on his shoulder. In that moment she felt, how he got much deeper and the whole act became much more intense.

His sweaty skin gleamed in the moonlight and the curves of his muscles got accentuated. The hair kept falling into his eyes, which he half-closed and a grin similar to the one of his lover underneath spread over his face. She groaned with eyes closed as much as she could, enjoying his proximity.

He took off her leg again and leaned her closer, so they continued sitting in mutual hug. Mikasa sat on him, exceeding his height a bit and with his head in her palms she pressed him against her chest and tried to make him as good as possible. Her head was lifted up to the ceiling with neck tightened and hair falling back.

"Aah-...aaah," a interrupted cream escaped her throat and once more she looked at the edge of the bed behind Rivaille's back, which she grasped firmly.

Rivaille hugged her lumbar region with his big hands and then he couldn't resist but grip her bottom as well as she did before. It seemed, that he moved with her. Her reward was her was his loud gasping.

Then he stopped suddenly, spasmodically grasped her in the arms and it seemed like he held a breath for a while. After a split second he breathed out in relieve, loosened his grip and whispered breathless: "Oh, Mikasa."

He turned his head to her again and longingly kisser her on her lips. Slowly and sensually. She felt, how his chest kept lifting up in slow intervals and the artery on his neck, where she held him, beated quickly. His skin was sticky with the sweat and strangely smelled. She inhaled his scent and couldn't get enough of it. They separated but still hugged each other.

She took off the hands of him to leaned away a bit and look straight to his eyes. He reached an arm to her, stroked her cheek and kissed her again but this time it was different, more tender, without the wildness and desire as before.

As her hot ardour faded away, she shivered in cold. She laid down on the bed this time on the one side to leave enough space for him to lay beside her. Rivaille sat on the edge of the bed for a while still and gazed in front of him. Then he nestled down next to his mistress and covered them with a blanket. Because she continued shaking, he leaned her closer to his chest. She smelled his scent again and the warm radiating from him. She held him under the blanket around his waist and closed her eyes. He kept stroking her hair and remained silent. Nobody of them felt the urge to talk and they just enjoyed the company of each other.

The great perfect silence in the room interrupted only with slow breathing of the couple was rudely disturbed with strong knocking on the door. Rivaille jerked a bit and sat down, leaving Mikasa lying in bed tranquilly. She apprehensively pulled the blanket closer to herself and watched, how her lover put on the boxers and covered his upper body in the shirt, just about to open the door.

Frightened, that somebody would have seen me she pulled the blanket above her head and tried to breath as silent as possible.

"Coming," Rivaille murmured annoyingly and it surprised Mikasa, how much is his average voice different from the one he talked to her with just half an hour ago.

He even didn't bother himself with button up his shirt, he just ran his hands through the hair and kneaded his eyes a bit before he with bear feet came to the door. He unlocked them and slightly opened them to ensure, that the person on the other side would see only him.

"I hope, somebody's dying, because in any other case I'd be really pissed off, Hanji!" he retorted promptly as he got to see, who came.

A typical ringing laughter and the words sounded, which were not exactly understandable.

"I seriously don't care, where Ackerman is, good night," he ended the conversation simply and closed the door even though Hanji had probably something else to tell him.

Mikasa almost jumped in the bed as she got to hear her own name. Fortunately she plugged her mouth with a hand. As she heard the slam of the door and the sound of the key in the lock, she looked up from the blanket.

"Damn Hanji," Rivaille uttered probably rather for himself before he turned to face Mikasa and came back to bed.

She leaned against her forearms with blanked just carelessly thrown across her naked body and silently with lifted eyebrows she invited him to continue.

"They're looking for you," he explained plainly and slightly frowned before he went on, "that the annoying friend of yours Sasha found out, that you're not in her room and blah blah blah. Hanji asked him, if I haven't seen you walk somewhere. Oh yes I have," he stated ironically and ran his eyes over her from her head to her feet with eloquent look.

She laughed tentatively and got pink a bit, as she get to understand his allusion.

After a while of silence she added: "What are we gonna do?"

She sat down on the bed, not considering the blanket, which just fell off her breasts.

"Don't worry about it now," he affirmed again with his silent, mysterious voice, which impressed her so much, and kissed her.

He put off his shirt on the chair by his table near the bed and slipped under the blanket to her again and in that process he sighted her naked rounded body once more. She laid on his chest again and let him stroking her, scenting his scent. She inhaled slowly and a rhythmical breath, which lifted his chest, slowly lulled her to sleep.

She woke up with palms laid beside her head, lying on her chest. She hadn't been even sleeping on the pillow, just on the soft mattress. Her back was exposed and the blanket covered her only from the loins to her feet. For a while she was trying to awake, so she leaned against her forearms and with head bent forward her sleepy eyes observed the cream coloured sheet. She kneaded her eyes and for a moment replayed the occurrences of previous night.

As she remembered it, she couldn't prevent herself from smiling. She turned on her back, pulled the blanket closer and smirked with cheeks slightly pink. However, then she realized, in whose arms she had fallen asleep and so she sat up, looking around the room. Her lover was sitting at the table nearby, showing his back to her. Beside her feet she found her thoroughly formed clothes and her shoes were situated by the right leg of the bed.

The corporal had been already neatly dressed into his uniform, even though his leather jacket had been still put over the backrest of the chair. His raven-like black hair was combed and smartened up and apparently he had been awake for some time already. Obviously he heard, as the girl started grinning and turning over in the bed and thus he quitted his current work and turned to her.

"Good morning," Mikasa pronounced smiley and observed him from the bed.

He was frowning. It surprised her a bit and her smile quickly faded away.

"Oh yeah, good morning," Rivaille said in response after a while, finally smiled and as if for the explanation he added, "sorry, I am pretty tired."

A huge boulder fell from her in relief, because she almost started thinking, that he marched her out with all compliments and would never talk to her again. What a paranoia, she thought and inwardly she would have like to slap herself.

"Why did you get up so early?" she asked, still lying in his bed. He stood up and sat to her on the edge of it.

"I can't sleep, when I am with someone," he explained her simply and Mikasa noticed his dark deep rings under his eyes, which she couldn't see before from the distance.

"I'm sorry," she stated full of remorse and lowered her head.

He caught her chin and lifted her head so she had to look to his eyes.

"Don't apologize, it's not your fault," Rivaille evaluated it and gazed at her with interest, "and I am pretty comfortable with it, if the cause of my insomnia is somebody that beautiful."

It was actually really the first time, he complimented her. Flattered she smiled and gave him a subtle kiss on the cheek. As he pretended to be disappointed by it, her ringing laughter sounded before she grasped his head and pulled him to her closer to kiss him truly. As they tore apart from each other, she noticed for a moment that familiar flame of lust reflecting in his eyes.

"I know, it sounds really weird, but I want you to leave," he affirmed all of a sudden," everybody is still sleeping, so this way you would avoid some gossips and rumours," he added.

"Oh... yes, I see," she murmured and leaned for her clothes in disappointment, "you don't know me, I don't know you."

"But no, wait," he gripped her shoulders again and smiled at her honestly, while stroking her cold arms, "I thought, that it wouldn't be appropriate, if people got to know it like that. You joined us just shortly ago, but I know Scouting legion a lot and if something happened, everybody found out about it immediately and diversely twisted the thing and so on. So most possibly there would be definitely someone this evening, who would stated, that I kidnapped you and raped you under a threat of death," he added and rolled his eyes up.

She understood his concerns and reasons but still it didn't calm her down.

"Ok, I will leave now then, but tell me something," she stopped for a minute, ruminating, if it was a good idea to ask, "how is it going to be now?" she asked carefully.

"Now? Well... considering that it is peace finally, we have more than enough time for everything," he averred and with mischievous smile he ran his fingers between her legs.

The black-haired girl gave out a shriek in fright and knowingly she laughed. She kissed him on his lips one last time and started dressing up slowly. She found out in the mirror, that she lost her pressure bandage from the wound on her forehead at night. She also got horrified as she looked at her ruffled hair. She sighed and smiled at Rivaille, who just turned to her from his table, for the last time. Silently they said goodbye to each other with their eyes before she unlocked the door and entered the corridor. She was really grateful for Eren's scarf, which was now perfectly hiding the red marks on her neck Rivaille did to her.

The plan of her superior went out almost perfectly. The corridor was empty. However, just as she approached the stairs, the door of Eren opened swiftly and her adoptive brother stood in the frame already dressed. He observed her with astonished grimace.

"Mikasa! What are you doing here?" he asked at once.

She hesitated for a minute. "It's nothing, I am just... sleepwalking," she tried to look as natural as possible.

"Really? That's weird," it didn't suit to the brown-haired boy, "in addition, you smell somehow funny."

Mikasa got surprised, that he noticed that. She was well aware of the fact, that she's soaked with Rivaille's scent, but it never came to her mind, that such an ignorant like him would notice it.

"I don't know, maybe I got soaked with something, as I was sleepwalking here," she explained carefully and as if it was nothing, she waved her hand.

"I guess," Eren resigned and scrutinized her with his green eyes, "Armin told me that they were looking for you yesterday. Where had you been?"

"Ehm... nearby," she stated and didn't actually lie.

"Oh... well, good for you. I couldn't almost sleep, because it seemed that somebody on the floor had pretty busy night. I've got a feeling, it might have been corporal Rivaille," he noted and whispered the last sentence conspiratorially.

She laughed in embarrassment. She wasn't sure at all, what Eren's reaction would be like, if he knew about her unordinary sleepover. Before he managed to add something, she interrupted him.

"Well, I am pretty hungry from all that sleepwalking, see you at breakfast," she blurted out and ran down the stairs.

However, the worst part was just about to come, she thought, after she sighed in relief, that she escaped the first problems.


End file.
